Democratic Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson compared parents speaking up at school board meetings to the riot at the capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, during remarks to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
“January 6, 2021 will never be forgotten. An infamous day in American history,” Johnson said. “MAGA Republicans descended upon the capitol, engaged in an insurrection. They occupied the capitol. Five people were killed, hundreds injured, including hundreds of Capitol Hill police officers, attacked and bludgeoned. It was a day that we’ll never forget.” (RELATED: ‘Authoritarian’: Republicans React To Biden Admin’s VA Office Offering Abortion Services)
“People on the local level at effected school board meetings, they won’t forget the MAGA Republicans descending on their school board meetings after January 6, like January 6, disrupting meetings,” Johnson continued.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA):
“People at school board meetings will never forget MAGA Republicans descending on their school board meetings just like they did on January 6. It was a coordinated attack happening across the country.” pic.twitter.com/8iZnSwRn94
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 14, 2022
Johnson then described the wave of parents speaking out at school board meetings as “a coordinated attack happening across the country.”
“Americans won’t forget about it — school board members, teachers, administrators subjected to violence, threats of violence, harassment and intimidation,” he added.
Loudoun County, Virginia, parent Scott Smith was arrested during a June 2021 school board meeting after disrupting the meeting to claim that a biologically male transgender student had sexually assaulted his daughter in the school bathroom. The trans teen was found guilty of sexual assault in Oct. 2021. Smith is still facing a disorderly conduct charge, according to a local CBS affiliate.
Parents in other school districts, including Fairfax, Virginia, have confronted local school boards over sweeping mask mandates for their children.
In Oct. 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI to investigate the “disturbing trend” of “harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools.”